Dr. Jeanne S. M. Willette – 3/12/19
Dr. Jeanne Willette unfortunately passed away in early 2019. She supported thousands of students in their exploration of art history during her career and was a valued colleague. This site, Art History Unstuffed, was one of her major contributions to those studying this field. Without Dr. Willette this site is not being updated with new content. While her web master, with support from her two sons, continues to maintain the site for the time being, a new generation of Art Historians is needed to carry the site into the future. If you are interested in participating or have other suggestions for this site, please click here to leave a note.
On line. At your convenience. In your own time. On your own terms.
For too long art history has been held hostage by scholars speaking to scholars and not to people. The purpose of this site is to educate and to inform and to do so with respect to the intelligence of the readers. Designed as a site for serious students of art history in need of solid substantive material, Art History Unstuffed is written for Twenty-First-century learners who prefer reading “text-bytes” and “sound-bytes” of targeted information.
Written by Dr. Jeanne S. M. Willette, a published scholar who has researched and consolidated both well-respected classical sources and vetted the latest research, this site creates a middle ground between arcane scholarly jargon and informed discourse and presents a detailed account of Modern, Postmodern, Philosophy and Theory that is accessible to all readers interested in the history of the modern and contemporary periods.
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Art History Unstuffed is listed on the ACI Scholarly Blog Index.
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Episode 31: Whistler, Part One
Whistler, Manet and The White Girl
One of the most overlooked avant-garde pioneers was the American in Paris (and London), the expatriate, James Whistler. Whistler was one of the first international artists, who showed in London and Parisian Salons. Although overshadowed in art history by his good friend, Édouard Manet, Whistler was the other scandal in the Salon des Refusés of 1863 with the controversial painting known as The White Girl. and instituted installation techniques later adopted by the Impressionists. Always controversial, Whistler’s art, like that of Manet, established Modernist tenets with his groundbreaking paintings.
Also listen to “Whistler, Part Two” and “Whistler, Part Three”
Episode 30: Édouard Manet, Part Two
ÉDOUARD MANET
Part Two
The painter of Parisian modernité, Édouard Manet, abandoned his early strategy of commenting on past masterpieces but continued his quest to update and modernize traditional genres in Salon painting. A transitional painter, Manet pointed to way to the final break from Academic art with his work during the last two decades of his life. One of the main themes of Manet’s work is the traffic in sex, a theme that exposed the hypocrisy of the Second Empire in which women bore the burden of male sins and sexual exploits. Manet’s point of view is that of the privileged male of the upper classes, the kind of man who frequents brothels and other sites of pleasure. Although much of the art historical writing on Manet has focused on his formal innovations, but this podcast stresses the scandalous and revelatory content of his art, which defines “modernité” in terms of male experience.
Also listen to “Édouard Manet, Part One” and “Sincerity and Artifice in French Realism” and “European Realism, Part One” and “European Realism, Part Two”
Read “Manet and Modernité” and “Manet and the Impressionists” and “Manet and the Nude”
Episode 29: Édouard Manet, Part One
ÉDOUARD MANET AND THE SALON
Part One
Like the career of Gustave Courbet, the career of Édouard Manet breaks into two segments. As with all aspiring artists, Manet had to make his mark, and he chose to call attention to himself through a series of paintings that combined homage with allegory. His works of the 1860s referred to revered art of the past but he updated the themes and applied old subject matter to new modern contexts.
It is with Édouard Manet that the concept of Modernism as a new form of urban culture is manifested in painting. A comparison between Manet and his predecessor (and contemporary Gustave Courbet) shows the shift in Naturalism from rural themes to urban life where a new kind of modernism was coming into being. Manet’s art was both public, life on the boulevards, and private, his friends and family and the woman he probably loved, the artist Berthe Morisot. This podcast traces Manet’s ironic and satiric play with art historical predecessors in his efforts to both succeed in the Salons and to capture the fleeting world of modernité.
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The Construction of a Discourse, 1910-1914
Creating a Culture of Cyber Criticism
Volume One: Blindness (Volume 1)
Dr. Willette is currently completing an entirely new kind of book on design, a book that is multi-modal. Offering multiple modes of output, this book offers the readers several ways of receiving information, slide shows, podcasts, texts and images. The interactive book, Design and the Avant-Garde, 1920-1940, will be divided into several volumes. Volume One will focus on the interconnections between art and design at the fine-de-siècle period, leading up to the creation of “modern” design.